Archive for September, 2007

Celts, Hermits, Buddhists, Monks

Published
by
Mike
on September 12, 2007
in General
. 16 Comments

Before all of you out there in blogland hear Randy Harris, we get the material at his home church in the raw, unedited form! Tonight he starts a three-week series (with a break for ACU lectureship) he’s calling “Celts, Hermits, Buddhists, Monks . . . What I Did With My Summer Break.”

ACU lectureship begins this Sunday evening with Jerry Taylor (whom I humorously refer to as my “fill-in” — the truth is that you’ll rarely hear better preaching in your life that when Jerry speaks!) and ends Wednesday night with Jeff Walling.

There are so many things that look interesting, but I’m especially anxious to hear Landon Saunders. He’s speaking Monday evening. Hope many of you will have a chance to be here.

- - - -

Want something for your Bible class to discuss for a few weeks? Try this piece by John Stackhouse. (And thanks to KS for pointing me to it.)

Here’s a taste:

Furthermore, we must beware of a second problem that lies nearby. And that is the idea that missions is all about getting people saved, and particularly about rescuing their souls from hell so that they can go to heaven. Multiple theological errors, in fact, attend this view of salvation.

God is not interested in saving merely human souls. He wants human beings, body and soul. Furthermore, he does not settle for saving human beings, but the whole earth. He made it in the first place, pronounced it “very good,” and he wants it all back. So he is saving us, the lords he put over creation, as part of his global agenda to rescue, indeed, the globe.

What God rescues us to, furthermore, is the original agenda he set out for us in Genesis 1, namely, to “fill the earth and subdue it.” He planted a garden for us to tend (Gen. 2) and commanded our first parents to raise up generations of gardeners to fan out across the earth to till the rest of it. This is what it means to bear the image of God. We, too, are to improve the situation, to cultivate what we encounter, to make shalom in every sector of life. And such work is our ultimate destiny as well, as we are to “reign with him” over the new earth he promises (2 Tim. 2:12). Thus we are not going back to Eden, nor up to a (spiritual) heaven, but forward to the New Jerusalem, which comes down from heaven to earth as our proper home (Rev. 21).

The Christian gospel therefore is not a narrowly spiritual one, but literally embraces everything, everywhere, at every moment. Every action that brings shalom—that preserves or enhances the flourishing of things, people, and relationships—is the primary will of God for humanity. Christians ought therefore to recognize and affirm anything our neighbors do to make peace, whether those neighbors intend to honor God or not. Indeed, we can cooperate with them in those ventures, since we see in them the divine agenda of shalom.

- - - -

Want to know why I often feel like I’m following a church rather than leading a church? Check out this post (9/11) from an attorney at our church, one of the best Bible teachers I’ve ever heard.

A Community Called Atonement

Published
by
Mike
on September 11, 2007
in scripture
. 12 Comments

This morning I took a long walk in the cold mist. I love it. Could have been Vermont! (Minus the trees and mountains.) More hot days will come, but there is again the promise of autumn.

- - - -

I haven’t been able to catch my breath to do much blogging. This weekend I read Scot McKnight’s A Community Called Atonement (Living Theology).

What a good, thoughtful read. McKnight has a way of bringing the best in New Testament studies to a deep concern for the church and its mission. He places atonement in the larger biblical framework: “Atonement finally concerns union with God and, simultaneously, communion with one another as its mirror among God’s created beings.”

Perhaps the greatest strength is the way he anchors the understanding of atonement in — shocking!! — Jesus himself and the announcement of God’s kingdom.

“You might be surprised to find the number of books on atonement that simply do no interact with (or even mention) Jesus’ vision of the kingdom. . . . Why? Because atonement theories have been shaped by the history of atonement theories, and that history has been dominated by Paul’s letter to the Romans so one-sidedly that opening the door to the kingdom upsets the entire conversation. . . .

“The kingdom of God, in short compass, is the society in which the will of God is established to transform all of life. The kingdom of God is more than what God is doing ‘within you’ and more than God’s personal ‘dynamic presence’; it is what God is doing in this world through the community of faith for the redemptive plans of God — including what God is doing in you and me. It transforms relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the world.”

In light of criticism of the notion of penal substitution, McKnight has some helpful insights. While admitting the pitfalls of many attempts to explain it, he provides a way forward. As he says, “I believe the hue and cry by emerging Christians about penal substitution is a gut-level reaction to caricatures of the doctrine. I don’t know how to read elements of (especially) Paul without explaining his soteriology as penal . . . .”

Perhaps more later. This is a worthwhile read!

What Is Salvation?

Published
by
Mike
on September 8, 2007
in General
. 40 Comments

“Salvation in Christ is salvation in the context of human society en route to a whole and healed world.” - David Bosch

A Little Honesty

Published
by
Mike
on September 6, 2007
in faith
. 59 Comments

My daughter-in-law pointed me to this excellent blog post by Jordan McCall, a young mother with cancer, who is trying to come to terms with her Bible class’s study of a Joel Osteen book.

This is one of the most honest, gospeled blog pieces I’ve read in a long time. (I’ll put the link in the comments.) I appreciate the McCalls letting me reprint her words here:

In our Sunday School Class, we have started a series of lessons on Joel Osteen’s “Your Best Life Now.” I have not read it, so as you read this post, please realize that it comes from someone who is mostly ignorant on what the book actually says. I only know of its ideas from other people who have read this book and the series that I mentioned. So, if you think the book is great and whole-heartedly believe it, then you should probably stop reading now. I am in a “hurting place” today and I think most of it is written to make Americans feel okay about themselves and their greed. I have to make this point first, I respect and admire the teachers that are presenting this study in our class. It is because of them that I haven’t just thrown up my hands and decided to skip Sunday School for six weeks. I am trying to have an open mind and looking for what God may be telling me through them. In the three weeks since they have started talking about this (I admit, we did miss one week because we were at Family Camp), I spend most of the class trying not to cry and leave feeling incredibly burdened. It’s hard to hear people talk about praying for a good parking space, and getting one, when most of your prayers are desperate pleas for God to take away your cancer, to give you a few more years to see your children grow up a little more, to ease the pain of your husband and children and parents if you do die. People who have cancer die of cancer. It may not be tomorrow or next year, but people with cancer do not live to see a ripe old age.I want to believe that God wants to pour out His favor on me, but it is so hard to find the favor when everyday is a struggle to be joyful and hopeful. Sometimes I feel like I am clinging to the edge of hope by my fingers and when I just can’t hang on anymore, I’ll fall into utter despair. I hold on with everything I have for Brad and Eli and Phoebe. Daily I pray for God to give me His hope, but so often I feel like I have to make myself feel it. Then we go to Sunday School where we hear to “be positive”, to “make today the day for your ’someday’ statements”, “you have to be specific about all your goals so you can make them”, and my favorite, “Look for God’s favor upon you this week.” I got a pretty bad sunburn on Monday at the pool because the Gleevec makes my skin very photosensitive. Monday night, the Gleevec made my back, hips, and legs ache so badly that I had to take prescription pain killer to get to sleep. Yesterday we learned that Phoebe has a hole in her heart that will require surgery when she’s two. I cannot claim to know the heart or plans of God, but it was pretty hard to hear. I am just not seeing the “favor.” Now most of this sounds very ungrateful. God has blessed us through all this mess. We have been showered with love and prayers. I have an uncle who writes me almost every week, just to say that he and my aunt are praying for me everyday. My side effects to Gleevec are pretty mild…I can mostly function (I say mostly because I have been expereincing some pretty heavy fatigue this last week). Our medical bills are not overwhelming us because Brad has a great new job. There are a hundred blessings, but it’s hard to see them through the hurt. I don’t feel like we are alone. I don’t know anyone who isn’t hurting in one way or another. I wonder if all of this “Best Life Now” stuff sounds shrill and hollow to them as well? More than likely, my attitude about the whole thing reveals more about me than about Joel Osteen and his book. But, this is my blog and I can write what I want. :)

Gospel Meetings

Published
by
Mike
on September 4, 2007
in Church of Christ and memories
. 67 Comments

I grew up with gospel meetings. Not revivals; gospel meetings. Denominations had revivals.

Some who are older than me remember two-week meetings, but I only go back to one-weekers. One in the fall; another in the spring. Every year.

You’d think those are bad memories. And yes, those probably weren’t my favorite two weeks of the year.

And yet — I remember the excitement at our church of knowing that someone was coming with urgent messages. Most years, Guy Napoleon Woods came. Other favorites were Hugo McCord, Bobby Key, and Walter Buchanan (my favorite because he was always so much fun at Green Valley Bible Camp near Bentonville).

I remember Guy N. Woods as a man in whom there was no doubt. His book “Questions and Answers” was like our “Pearl of Great Price” — not exactly the Bible, but still a pretty holy book.

But with the others, the memories are much better: the church getting ready in prayer, the discipline of going to the assembly every night (while other kids were playing ball!), and the attempt to write down every scripture mentioned.

I’m not wanting to go back to gospel meetings. Not at all.

But . . . remembering them makes me ask these questions: In what ways are we providing biblical teaching for the church? In what ways are we reaching out to people who are lost (in every sense of the word) — so that we seek to go out rather than attract?